


Give Me Tonight

by fakingg_sanity



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Comfort, Episode: s02e04 Meat, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Gwen and Rhys' relationship, Jack and Ianto from afar, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Not gwen bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 19:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20413075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fakingg_sanity/pseuds/fakingg_sanity
Summary: Post meat: from Gwen's perspective.No Gwen bashing, but doesn't exactly love her either. Just a one shot that was bothering me last night so i had to finish it :)





	Give Me Tonight

Gwen left the hub in a fit of self-indulgent rage that night. She stormed out the tourist office and into the glorious sun of Cardiff bay. And Rhys was there. Lovely Rhys. With an arm in his sling and waiting for her, always waiting. She smiled at him, and he smiled at her, and they kissed. The journey home was quiet, Gwen caught up in her thoughts – in her still simmering anger – and Rhys having succumbed to the pain in his arm enough to fall asleep in the passenger seat.

She reflected on her words in the hub, and she meant every single one of them. How could they do that? How could _Jack _do that? To expect her to retcon the man she loved after he’d saved them all, the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life with. None of them understood. She glanced over at Rhys’ sleeping form, at the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the sling. Many people can say they’d take a bullet for their significant other, very few actually do. Rhys had. Gwen felt love burst in her chest, and she decided to forget about the hub, and about Jack, and about everything that had led to their car journey that night. She drove them home, they had curry for dinner and went to bed wrapped in each other’s arms.

Gwen awoke the next morning to a text from Jack telling her not to come in that day, to stay home and look after Rhys. He’d see her the following day. Gwen smiled down at her phone, the warmth pooling in her heart again. She loved Jack, he understood her, understood that she needed to be with Rhys that day.

They pottered around most of the morning, made a slow breakfast and watched boring TV. Rhys felt tired in the mid afternoon and he’d settled for a nap. At around 4pm Gwen gave into a strong urge, and decided to check her comm unit. She hadn’t heard anything from anyone at torchwood since Jack had text her that morning. And even though she was revelling in a day off to spend with her future husband, she was desperately curious as to what was happening at the hub too. So, while Rhys was snoring in the other room, she gently picked up the comm and placed it in her ear. Gwen tapped it once, automatically linking her to the channel being used by the team. She gasped as Jack’s strong voice filled her ear.

_‘Ianto where are you?_

_‘I’m just around the other side of the building sir, that shot nearly clipped me. I’m picking up readings on the second floor.’_

_‘Copy. Meet you round front. And go more careful.’_

_‘Hardly my fault they decided to shoot at me.’_

_‘Ignoring that and you. Owen?’_

_‘Two minutes out. Me and Tosh will take the back end of the building.’_

_‘Okay, on my count.’_

_‘One minute. Providing teaboy lives that long,’_

_‘Hey!-’_

Gwen ripped the comm from her ear, unable to listen any longer. They all sounded so happy even though they were at work, even though she wasn’t there. She twisted the comm in her hand, biting her thumbnail and sitting deep in thought. She was glad of her time with Rhys, she really was. But god did she miss it already. Just hearing all of them talking to each other, out on a mission, was gutting to her. She couldn’t believe she wasn’t there with them. It’d only been a year and a half, barely any time compared to her stint at the police station. But it felt like her entire life. She felt truly at home in that world. It made her special, made her one of the few who truly understood the universe. She smiled at the thought.

Rhys emerged from their room, scratching his arse with his un-slung arm and yawning. He smiled when he saw his Gwen, off in her own world. He plonked down the sofa next to her and nudged her with his knee. ‘You alright, Love?’

Gwen jumped slightly, as if she really hadn’t noticed Rhys was there until he spoke. She smiled softly when she met his eyes. ‘Hey, you. I’m good. How’re you? In much pain? How did you sleep?’

Rhys laughed and wrapped his good arm around her, kissing the side of her head. ‘Which one of those do you want answering first?’ Gwen huffed out an embarrassed laugh and sunk deeper into Rhys’ embrace. ‘I’m good, honest. Just aching all over. I keep thinking it’s a dream. I think back at yesterday and I can’t believe it really happened.’ He smiled dopily and Gwen’s heart did the fluttery thing again. ‘Is this how you felt when you started?”

Gwen grinned, and thought about Jack. ‘It’s how I feel every day, love. Even now.’

Gwen didn’t know she was lying, but she was. In fact, the novelty had long since worn off. It was a job, an amazing job that she felt incredibly lucky to have. But one she unknowingly took for granted. They spent the rest of the afternoon watching shit TV, but Gwen was distracted. She couldn’t stop thinking about Torchwood, and the more she thought about Torchwood, the more she thought of Jack, and the rest of the team and everything she said to them. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in what she said, it was more she felt they didn’t understand where she was coming from. She felt she needed to apologise, not for what she said, but for how she said it. Tensions had been running high after all, and they were all a little wound up. Making her decision, she patted Rhys’ knee softly.

‘How about I go and pick us up some dinner, anything you want?’ that went down well, and within 5 minutes she was on her way to the hub under the guise of picking up a pizza.

Gwen hadn’t really thought this far ahead, she wanted to make clear to the team that she hadn’t meant any offence with her words yesterday, just that she wanted them to understand how hard it was for her to have Rhys outside of Torchwood and not be able to tell him anything. And that now it would be okay because he knew, and they had to see that was better for her, for all of them really.

Gwen arrived at the hub and let herself in though the large cog door. She expected to see Tosh and Owen as soon as the door rolled open, but neither of them were at their desks, the lights were only half on and she couldn’t hear any voices. She gingerly took a few steps forward into the hub, resisting the urge to call out to see if anyone was in. She should have checked on the comms to see if they’d finished for the night. But that cynical part of her assumed that at 9pm they’d all still be sat around at the hub twiddling their thumbs in place of doing anything real with their evenings.

A noise drew Gwen out of her thoughts. Coming from Jack’s office. She couldn’t make it out, but she took quiet steps towards the room, hoping if Jack was still here with one of the team she’d be able to quickly chat to them about the day before. As she edged closer to the office, she was able to detect two voices, Jack’s and…. Someone’s. But they weren’t in the office, she looked down and saw the manhole cover that shut over Jack’s bedroom was open, and Jack’s voice was coming from down there. A painful ache swelled in her stomach. Jack wouldn’t have brought someone back to the hub would he? Not some civilian one-night stand, that would be so irresponsible and-

Gwen stopped in her tracks. She knew that other voice.

‘Ow-Jack. Shove over, you’re squishing my arm.’

There was no doubt about it. That was Ianto. In Jack’s room. With Jack. At night. Gwen’s brain was whirring at a million miles per second. She held her breath and listened for the reply, edging closer to hear better.

‘You take up too much room.’ Jack said half seriously, Gwen could tell by the sound of his voice he was teasing. There was a huff from down below, and some quiet laughter. Gwen wished she could see what was going on as well as hear. There was comfortable silence for a minute, until Jack spoke again. ‘How’s your arm doing, feel any better?’

Ianto exhaled slowly. ‘It’s aching. But I’ll still be able to make your coffee.’

‘Oh, thank God. That’s all I was worried about, not your safety or anything. – Ow! Why’d you poke me?’

‘Don’t be snarky, it all worked out in the end.’

‘Yeah and you’ve got a lovely new bullet hole to add to the collection. What’s that 4 in total?’

Ianto paused for a second in thought. Gwen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Ianto had been shot? When? How? Why hadn’t they told her? And what on earth was going on with Jack and Ianto? She had far too many questions that couldn’t be answered, at least, not right now.

‘Five I think, I’m not sure. You’ll have to count again.’ Gwen recognised that tone, she’d used it many times on Rhys, as he had on her. The flirty challenge. She heard Jack chuckle warmly. She’d never heard him laugh like that before, her stomach clenched again.

‘You heard what Owen said, you have to take it easy. No strenuous activity. And definitely no… Counting…’ Ianto huffed in reply, and they settled into silence again. Gwen was almost sure they’d fallen asleep until Jack spoke again, softly this time, so quiet she had to strain to hear it.

‘You scared me today, when we were circling that building and I could hear the shots going off. And Owen on comms saying you’d been hit. And yesterday…’

‘Jack…’ Ianto’s voice gently interrupted.

‘Ianto. When it all went to hell, and the creature started going crazy, and that guy had a gun to your head. I thought you-’

‘-But I didn’t. I’m still here.’

‘I thought I’d lost you.’

‘Jack-’

’-It was too close. Yesterday was too close, today was too close. What if we don’t get tomorrow?’

Ianto didn’t have an immediate reply for that. Gwen could barely breath for the intensity of it. Tears pricked at her eyes. Her throat was closing and she suddenly understood. All the things she’d said the day before, the awful accusations of not understanding, of being cold and lonely. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Gwen had to watch Rhys walk into danger once, and she’d felt so powerless. Jack watched Ianto walk into danger every day, sent him into it, knowing it could get him killed. She couldn’t imagine. Because whatever assumptions she’d had about the casual state of their relationship had been flung so far out the window she could barely see them anymore. This was no casual thing, not anymore. She could hear it in the crack of Jack’s voice, the softness…

They’d gone quiet for a while, and Gwen thought it time to make her exit. All desire to explain herself gone, all drive to prove to them how important her ‘real life’ was, all completely disappeared. She had her own wonderful world at home, but that didn’t mean those of her co-workers were any less important. She’d apologise to them all tomorrow, properly, and mean it. Just as she was standing and making her way out of the office she heard Ianto’s belated reply.

‘Jack… if we don’t have tomorrow, give me tonight.’

She heard Jack suck in a breath, the rest of whatever he or Ianto may have said was lost in passionate groans. She flushed, suddenly needing to be home with Rhys. She raced to exit the hub, leaving through the lift rather than the noisy door. She’d pick up their dinner and speed home, and feed Rhys some story about the slow delivery and how busy it was, just like she always did. And then tomorrow she’d stop, and she’d start telling the truth.

Because she was fortunate to have tomorrow, and now she knew not everyone had that luxury.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this. I sort of did a double take when thinking about what story i could write this week, and thought about how very few post meat stories from Gwen's perspective there are. Obviously i had to put in a bit of Jack/Ianto, but i thought this was a bit of a different/interesting way to do it. Let me know what you guys think!


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